The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is one of the four major television networks in the United States. It was partially responsible for the founding of the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) via decisions made following investigations from the FCC.
NBC is also the company that airs the rival morning show of Good Morning America, TODAY.
History[]
Disney productions[]
In 1938, The Mickey Mouse Theater of the Air aired on NBC radio stations to promote the nationwide release of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. In 1950, Disney's very first television special, One Hour in Wonderland, aired on NBC to promote the upcoming release of Alice in Wonderland.
From 1961 to 1981, and 1988 to 1990, NBC aired the Disney anthology television series, which first ran on ABC from 1954 to 1961 as Disneyland, which was later renamed Walt Disney Presents. Upon its move to NBC, it changed its name to Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color, and later renamed The Wonderful World of Disney and then Disney's Wonderful World. From 1985 to 1989, Disney's first animated television series, Adventures of the Gummi Bears, aired on NBC on Saturday mornings.
The Buena Vista Television-produced game show Win, Lose or Draw (which was revived on the Disney Channel in 2014) aired on the network's daytime lineup from 1987 to 1989 with Vicki Lawrence as host; some of NBC's owned-and-operated stations, including WTVJ in Miami, aired the concurrent syndicated edition until 1990.
In the 2011 film The Muppets, NBC was one of the three networks that turned down The Muppet Telethon, the others being FOX and Univision.
Acquisitions[]
Today, NBC is a subsidiary of NBCUniversal, which, in turn, was owned by General Electric. In 2009, it was announced that cable system owner Comcast would gradually take over NBC Universal operations from GE, paying US $20 billion over a ten year period.